Pestana Plaza Mayor

For anyone interested in delving into Madrid’s art and culture, this new boutique hotel is hard to beat: located right on Plaza Mayor and set in a charming 17th-century building from Spain’s Golden Age.

Open your window and you’re looking out over the grand square (or there are quieter rooms facing the courtyard); there’s a rooftop pool for blazing Madrid days, as well as a beautiful, brick-vaulted indoor pool in the cellars – where coal to heat the building was once stored.

With flashes of cobalt, navy and exposed red brick, the colour scheme in the rooms recalls paintings by local art legends Velazquez and Goya.

There’s a courtyard restaurant, and you’re in walking distance of scores of others, along with all the main sights of Madrid.